Griffin! Listen!’ said Searle, and put a strong arm around the boy. And as fast as hope had wilted, so now did it spring up again, and the boy stood, twitching, to locate the sound. Yet the city was full of echo, and the sound rolled down streets, and changed course, and rolled back on itself. And towards them now ran Arno and Martin, one on either side of the spike, and each pointing in high excitement.
You hear that?’ panted Arno. That’ll be the Great Church. This way!’
‘No!’ Martin called. ‘Over here!’
‘Come back, you turnips!’ shouted Searle. ‘It’s the boy will bring us.’
And Griffin’s head swivelled, yet the sound seemed without source. It echoed all around, and the boy could gain purchase on naught but the lights which taunted and mocked, and flashed all about, and he put a hand to his brow.
It — it’s like I see too much! Searle! Black my eyes — quick. Blindfold me.’
So the boy was blindfold that did move forward and stop on every corner, his head cocked first this way, then that, yet he did lead Arno and Martin and Searle and the horse through the mingle-mangle of streets to the Great Church. There Searle stripped the blindfold away, and by then Connor was back at the lop of the steeple, and Griffin saw him there, and cried out.
‘Connor! Don’t move!’
The boy ran for the great doors, with Searle close behind. He ran with pounding feet up the great spiral stairs of stone, and past the belfry where the great bell still hummed.
onnor had heard the boy’s cry and looked down from that fearful height, and his head sank with relief against the ladder, that the spike was brought to its destination and there might still be time enough.
But the paling sky made every movement urgent, and turned him back to his work.
With feverish hands he yanked rope through the pulley, and leaned way out to heave the heavy coil of rope so it might fall without hindrance to the eager hands of Arno and Martin far below. And as he threw the heavy coil, his single handhold upon the steeple gave way. In that. moment, Connor fell head- long and screaming down the pitiless roof. Yet did the widening slope of the steeple intersect Connor’s fall so that his frantic hands again touched the ladder, gripped it, and his plunging body swung back with a crash against the ladder.
And the rung that turned his fall snapped then, and he plum- meted on, arms flailing wildly for a handhold, and found it, and hung finally upon the edge of the abyss on a single cracking rung.
Then far below Arno and Martin saw falling through the air, not Connor, but a shower of broken wood, and a single gaunt- let, wrenched from Connor’s hand, spinning through the air to fall at their feet.
And now Griffin burst through the trapdoor at the base of the steeple, and far below him saw the white faces of those shocked and silent.
